Breaking The Silence is a touching love story. A man disappears from the face of the earth and his wife – played by actress Dagmar Slagmolen – begins a desperate search to find him back. He was a gifted and thwart composer during the dictatorship, she was a talented cellist serving the regime.
Did her husband betray her? Was he a victim of the system? What has changed their relationship over the course of the years?
Through music and old recordings she tries to reconstruct the chain of events, an adaptation for saxophone quartet with important contributions of ‘String Quartet No.8’ by Shostakovich and the ‘Musica Ricercata’ by Ligeti.
New music was written for this performance by Peter Vigh, altist with the Berlage Saxophone Quartet, whose father lived for thirty years under communist rule in Hungary. He writes several new compositions for lyrics and music on tape recorders, which will be keyed in as interludes between the existing classical music.
Venue for this concert is the Singelkerk. The former hiding church is from the outside not recognisable as such and is considered a hidden gem in old downtown Amsterdam.
De Telegraaf: "Geholpen door bandopnamen en muziek van Ligeti en Sjostakovitsj -met briljante timing gespeeld door het Berlage Saxophone Quartet- probeert zij hun liefde te reconstrueren. Om te kijken of die soms een rol heeft gespeeld bij de verdwijning van haar man." Marco Weijers